Letters.

Lost Cost Of Entertainment

June 29, 1997|By James M. Lynch Artistic Director Chase Park Theatre.

CHICAGO — Mark Caro's article "Paying the Price" (June 15, Arts & Entertainment) listed all the high prices of today's entertainment: movies, concerts, musicals--even Great America--but it was all bad news with no `light at the end of the tunnel'; no options offered to these rising costs.

Well, for those discouraged about the high price of super-hype action films and high-tech Broadway tours in venues where you sit a quarter of a mile from the lip of the stage, there is an alternative that is too often over-looked, yet a vital part of Chicago's international cultural reputation: live theater.

Mr. Caro did include local theaters like the Goodman and Steppenwolf and their rising prices for seats, but he left out a wealth of great entertainment; all live, fresh and daring- and most available for an average of $10 (though if you do your homework you can find "twofers" to many).

One more thing: an interesting irony was that in that same edition you printed a letter from a reader that bemoaned the closing of Candlelight Dinner Playhouse, the birthplace of dinner theater, where for the price of one seat at a Broadway re-tread, two could see great local talent do fabulously staged productions AND get dinner!